Books on books #9-12

Books on Books #9 Paul Graham : Beyond Caring

Published in 1986 Beyond Caring is now considered one of the key works from Britain’s wave of New Color photography that was gaining momentum in the 1980s. While commissioned to present his view of ‘Britain in 1984,’ Graham turned his attention towards the waiting rooms, queues and poor conditions of overburdened Social Security and Unemployment offices across the United Kingdom. Photographing surreptitiously, his camera is both witness and protagonist within a bureaucratic system that speaks to the humiliation and indignity aimed towards the most vulnerable end of society. Books on Books #9 presents every page-spread of Graham’s controversial book along with a contemporary essay by writer and curator David Chandler.

Books on Books #10 Zdeněk Tmej: The Alphabet of Spiritual Emptiness

Zdeněk Tmej’s Abeceda duševního prázdna (The Alphabet of Spiritual Emptiness). Published in 1946 enables a rare look, from a captive’s perspective, inside a Nazi forced labor camp in Breslau, Poland during World War II. It is remarkable that Tmej, a Czech citizen made to work for the Nazi war effort for two years, was allowed to photograph at all, let alone describe the psychological stasis of his experience with the poetic voice that these portraits and still-lifes convey. Books on Books #10 presents every page spread from this extremely rare and fragile document including the original texts by Alexandra Urbanová translated for the first time into English. Czech photo historian Vladimír Birgus contributes a contemporary essay on Tmej called Zdeněk Tmej’s Conscripted Labor in Germany.

Books on Books #11 Alexey Brodovitch : Ballet

Alexey Brodovitch’s Ballet published in 1945 is one of the most legendary of photobook masterpieces. While already established as a leading influential art director and graphic designer, Brodovitch turned his photographic talents towards rehearsals and performances of ballet companies visiting New York stages. Shot in 35mm and disregarding traditional conventions of “good” technique, Brodovitch pushed the boundaries of description to create a panorama of images that perfectly captures the motion and spirit of dance. Books on Books #11 reproduces every dynamic page spread from this rarely seen volume along with a contemporary essay written by leading Brodovitch scholar Kerry William Purcell.

Books on Books #12 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy : 60 Fotos

László Moholy-Nagy’s 60 Fotos sets forth the framework and ideas behind the ‘New Vision’ of modern photography from the legendary Bauhaus teacher and key figure in early experimental photographic practice. Published in 1930 as the first book in the planned Fototek series on ‘New Photography,’ 60 Fotos evoked a complex and multi-layered dialogue using some of Moholy-Nagy’s finest examples of ‘straight’ photographs, negative prints, photograms, and photomontage. Books on Books #12 reproduces every page spread from this classic treatise on photography along with a contemporary essay from the noted photo-historian David Evans.

Books on Books #9-12 Limited Edition set

Limited Edition sets sold directly through Errata Editions to help fund the continuation of this series. 90% of our production funding comes from the sales of these sets so please support us by purchasing a set today.

These Limited Edition books feature a beautiful reproduction tipped into the cloth cover of each book. Besides owning a more elegant version of each in the series, the advantage to purchasing a Limited Edition set is the assurance that you will receive these special editions of the Books on Books series as soon as they are off the press and before the regular edition is distributed. These limited edition versions are not available as individual books, only as a set of four.